Best Mobile Testing Techniques

August 4, 2017
| 281 views

Hand-held technical devices have undergone several bouts of transformation over the past few decades. With changing shapes, sizes and functions, mobile phones have crawled in their own way into the user’s pockets. Today, a smartphone has become a basic necessity of life for everyone.

A study conducted by Bizness Apps reveals that, by 2017 780 million people will be mobile only users, not owning laptop or desk and by 2020 of this year mobile app market will be crossing $80Billion.

With the rapid pace of technological transformation, customer requirement becomes the primary benchmark for mobile apps development companies. Almost all the organizations are following the agile methodology, which becomes imperative to get mobile application hit the market quicker and with better quality. There are millions of applications designed for different mobile platforms that need to be tested.

The number of mobile application download is believed to touch 262, 692 Million by 2017.

The mobile business hits back due to poor mobile application functionality, unfriendly UI/ UX, or response time. The users are impulsive; they will uninstall the application as soon as they encounter such issues. 68% of mobile application users actually report or review using them. A bad user experience leads to poor user rating. 52% of the mobile users say that a bad mobile app experience made them less likely to engage with it further. This spaces a high significance of mobile testing.

Mobile Quality Assurance plays an important role in maintaining and improving the user experience of applications across mobile platforms. In mobile application testing, the functionality, usability, compatibility, performance and consistency of the mobile application are key factors to be tested. Applications should also be tested for consistency & stability during interruption by other apps, network or device itself.

A proper test strategy with good techniques is a key for successful mobile application testing.

Let’s now discuss about some of the key techniques to make mobile application testing more efficient.

Increased Productivity with Parallel Testing

With the known fact, that a mobile application can be tested simultaneously on several devices, this major convenience can be utilized to take productivity to the next level. It also increased the scope to detect bugs quicker and arrive with swift solutions which makes the apps run consistently, contributing to greater than before ROI.

Framework as Strategy

Many business owners have an impression that test automation tools are expensive and therefore not worth the investment.

Indium’s offshore software test automation services adopt very high standards for script development & documentation. OurIP led solutionshelps companies to meet the test automation objectives at a faster pace and in an effective manner. Based on the type of application and test cases, Indium brings together best practices of different automation frameworks, wherein, the test management tools are integrated with automation tool. Eventually, this helps to achieve reliability and faster test execution as well as easy maintenance of the automated test scripts. These test automation solutions help firms to reap the benefits of automation at a faster pace and in an effective manner.

A/B testing matters

Mobile testing is made easy with A/B testing process. This is done by setting different landing pages for the application. With A/B testing, different scenarios of experiences can be tested within the application and changes can be made to the application based on actual data instead. This supports to gain valuable insights about end-user experience and eventually results in greater ROI.

Reusability is Directly Proportional to Time

Reusability is a key for faster time to market. The time consumed to develop a test script will be saved if test scripts are reused. Not only it improves the ROI of the application, the reusability of test scripts also leads to a head start for other similar types of mobile application testing projects.

Cloud Mobile Testing

Having an in-house test lab enables continuous testing process, as the access to devices will not be restricted. Simulation and cloud can be used to constantly monitor the performance of mobile apps. A mobile device testing cloud lab improves overall efficiency and results and high returns.

Some of the key metrics to look at about mobile applications are,

93% of the mobile app users say that branded apps don’t contribute to their brand loyalty.

99% of the apps get used only once which means, downloaded, opened and forgotten about.

There are lot of factors contributing to the above stats. Some of them are usability, compatibility, installation factors, local apps, performance, etc.

No matter what the application is and what kind of testing is to be done, there are some key testing activities to be performed to add value to the testing strategies and methodologies.

The application should be checked for proper installation. If there is any issue while installing an application, the user will immediately remove it from the mobile. Hence, proper installation of the mobile application has to be given primary importance and the related issue should be fixed as early as possible, if any.

Testing should be performed to ensure whether the mobile application is more user friendly with easy navigation or not? Hence, mobile application should be tested for better UX/UI.49% of the users held their phone in one hand and use the applications with thumb and the average width of an adult thumb is 1 inch which converts to 72 pixels.Also there are other factors involving design of mobile applications such as left hand usability, right hand usability or cradled usability. The mobile application should be ensured for the usability factors considering the above facts.

Compatibility check has to be done for every mobile application which is brought under test. There are different ranges of mobile devices with different versions of OSs. The compatibility checklist has to be prepared for mobile type, mobile OS, versions of OS or network operators.

Interruptions will always be there while using a mobile application. These interruptions can be from other mobile applications running simultaneously, network related or due to the device itself (battery or power related).

Localization testing is the next step to be performed for the mobile application. It can be L10N or I18N testing. This is to make sure if the application is available in different location with native language.

When an application runs in too many environments, performance becomes an important factor to safeguard the brand image. Performance testing such as Load testing, Stress Testing, Spike testing, Endurance Testing, Scalability Testing and Volume testing; helps in finding bottlenecks and performance bench-marking.

It will affect the brand negatively for a very long time. The primary goal of performance monitoring is to benchmark the behaviour of the mobile application. The application should be addressed for performance issues due to design and architecture of the application. Planning for proactive performance maintenance will be a great solution. Constant performance monitoring will assure that the solution meets customer expectations and results in enhanced ROI.

There are few more to add to this list such as pre-development testing, time zone compatibility testing, social integration testing, sensor/ network/external port testing